Jim Mora Is Taking UCLA Football To Historic Lows

Welcome to a special Friday morning edition of the Sunday Morning Quarterback because UCLA Football played last night.

Let’s face it. Last night’s game was just sad.

The defense gave the offense the ball four times and all the scoring the offense could manage was three lousy points.

It’s time to start benching seniors in favor of younger guys who will be here next season and that starts with quarterback.

That’s not a slight to Mike Fafaul. He’s done his absolute best and he’s tried extremely hard to lead this team to a victory. But, come next season, he’ll be gone and Devon Modster, Matt Lynch and Dymond Lee will still be here.

Under the best case scenario, the advantage of getting one of these guys some playing time now is that it would help develop next year’s backup quarterback.

And, under the worst case scenario, heaven forbid, it could give UCLA’s next starting quarterback some experience.

I’m not saying that I have any more information on Josh Rosen’s injury than anybody else, but the fact is that Josh Rosen needs surgery (as confirmed by Mike Fafaul in his post-game interview last night) is indicative that there is a possibility that Josh might never play again.

Of course, everyone wishes Josh the best and hopes his surgery goes well and that he fully recovers so that he can realize his dream of playing in the NFL.

I’m just asking what happens next season if Josh Rosen is unable to return?

Wouldn’t it be better to have a young guy with a few games experience under his belt, regardless of whether Jim Mora is still in Westwood or not?

That’s why Jim Mora and staff need to start one of the freshmen threesome next week against Oregon State.

Hey, maybe, just maybe the kid whose number is called steps in and surprises everyone.

Maybe, just maybe, he’s able to beat OSU and USC and UC Berkeley.

Alright, so maybe he isn’t. Does that put the team in a worse position than it’s in right now? If you expect this team, with Mike Fafaul at quarterback, to win more than one more game this season, you are wearing Rose Bowl-colored glasses.

But, then again, Jim Mora is stubborn.

Not only is Jim stubborn, Jim Mora can, by his own admission, be an asshole. And just in case those Rose Bowl-colored glasses still have you not acknowledging that I’m going to offer some additional evidence to prove it.

Last night, in his post-game press conference, Ben Bolch of the LA Times asked a question about yesterday’s official announcement about Josh Rosen being out for the season. In response, Mora said, "Josh who?" as if he didn’t know that Bolch meant Josh Rosen. "We’re talking about Colorado here. So, if you want to talk about Colorado, we can do that."

The exchange occurs at the 2:38 mark in Thuc Nhi Nguyen’s video of Mora’s postgame press conference. Thanks to Thuc Nhi of InsideSocal.com for posting the video.

Mora’s response was completely uncalled for.

The last time Mora met with the media several days ago, he denied that Rosen was out for the year. He told the Fox Sports 1 announcers before the game that Rosen was out for the remainder of the season and a UCLA spokesman informed other media members like ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura who wrote a story about it that was published about 40 minutes before kickoff.

But Jim Mora refused to talk about it after the game last night for no other reason than he didn’t want to.

Last night’s loss dropped Mora’s conference record to 24-19 including the 2012 Pac-12 Championship Game loss to Stanford. That means that Jim Mora now has a worse conference record than former UCLA coach Karl Dorrell. Let that sink in for a moment.

Karl Dorrell is considered one of the worst coaches in the history of UCLA football and Jim Mora’s record against conference opponents is now worse than Dorrell’s was. You know it’s time to replace your football coach when he starts making Karl Dorrell look good. That’s what Jim Mora has done this year. That’s how low UCLA football has sunk.

If that’s not enough for you, consider the fact that, since November 14th of last year, UCLA has played 13 games. In those 13 games, UCLA is 4-9. But, that’s not the worst of it.

Eleven of those 13 games have been against Power 5 opponents. For the uninitiated, the Power 5 conferences are the five biggest in college football. They include the Pac-12, the Big 12, the Big 10, the SEC and the ACC. In those eleven games against Power 5 schools, Jim Mora is an underwhelming 2-9.

In four seasons at the helm for UCLA, Rick Neuheisel never lost more than 8 games. This year, Jim Mora has the opportunity to accomplish something that has only been done once before in almost 100 years of UCLA football.

And, no, I’m talking about winning a national championship.

I’m talking about losing nine games in a season. The only time the Bruins have lost that many games was in 1940 when the team was 1-9. If Mora loses the last three games of the year, he will set the record for most losses in the conference in a season with 8. It would also mean that UCLA would have the fewest conference wins in a season (that doesn’t include forfeited games due to an eligible player) since 1971 when the team only won 1 game in conference.

Wow. That’s how low the team has sunk under Jim Mora.

It’s time for a change. Mora has to go.

Go Bruins.